North Dakota lawmakers balked at a proposal, advocated by Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, to require cold-pill buyers to show identification and provide their names, addresses and phone numbers to the store clerk.

"We're infringing upon the vast majority of our law-abiding citizens who are buying these over-the-counter drugs for legitimate purposes," said Rep. Lawrence Klemin, R-Bismarck. "We at least … ought to know what's going to be done with this list, how it's going to be handled."

The North Dakota House voted Friday to force negotiations on a bill, which has been approved by the state Senate, that requires anyone who buys several common types of cold medicine to show ID and give personal information to the store clerk.

The legislation is intended to hinder people who buy large quantities of cold medicine to process into methamphetamine, an addictive and illegal stimulant.

In recent years, North Dakota has seen a great increase in meth manufacturing and addiction, and the Legislature has already approved limits on how much cold medicine someone may buy during a single trip to the store.

Klemin and other lawmakers said they were troubled the bill did not include any restrictions on what merchants could do with customers' personal data.

"I go into Target and buy something, they have to take it down," said Rep. George Keiser, R-Bismarck. "There's no requirements that this list of information be kept confidential."

Stenehjem said afterward the concerns were understandable. His office has already drafted an amendment specifying that the merchant records should not be divulged to anyone except law enforcement, or in response to a court order.

"Everyone in the state of North Dakota has to join in on this fight," he said. "This is the most serious law enforcement issue in the state, and we cannot expect that we're going to solve the problem without inconveniencing anyone."

The debate came Friday when representatives were asked to approve legislation that requires merchants to strengthen their oversight of cold-medicine sales.

The bill is HB1346.

As introduced, the bill gave store proprietors five options for doing so.

However, the Senate, at Stenehjem's urging, added the compulsory requirement that store clerks require a customer ID and get the person's name, address and phone number when selling some types of cold medicine.

Representatives on Friday refused to agree to the Senate changes. They voted 58-27 to demand that a House-Senate conference committee work out the differences between the two bills. Conference committees are made up of three senators and three representatives.

Several lawmakers defended the Senate's version of the bill. Rules such as the ones Stenehjem advocates have been effective in Oklahoma and elsewhere in deterring methamphetamine production, said Rep. Duane DeKrey, R-Pettibone.

If North Dakota's restrictions are more lax than surrounding states, "we'll be this island where, all of a sudden, we'll be the best place to cook meth," he said.